1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an antler composition and, more particularly, to an antler composition comprising a special matrix. The present invention further relates to a special antler extract mixture, and to a process to produce the antler extract mixture.
2. Description of Related Art
There are extensive amount of polymeric materials such as proteins and peptides in velvet antler extract. These polymers are said to play important roles in various function in human body, including anti-aging, boosting immune system, and anti-disease etc. Oral administration is the most popular and convenient way for taking such products, however, the nutriment may be degrade by the strong acid in our stomach, and some polymer molecules will lose their activities to lower the efficiency of velvet antler. Therefore, the non-oral administration, which delivers the active molecules into blood directly, becomes more important.
The non-oral administrations are usually nasal or sublingual administration. The most effective non-oral administration method for nutriment is the mucosa spray method, which perform good bioavailability and pharmadynamics. Because the large surface area under the tongue and intranasal areas, where has less enzymatic activity, so the degradation of polymeric material such as velvet antler is less. In addition, the spray form is very convenient and popular to consumers.
However, there are also many disadvantages for mucosa spray. For example, plenty of fluid flows through the mucus surface, therefore the time period available for the therapeutic absorption is relatively short. Another question is that the peptides or proteins with higher molecule weight are not easily adsorbed through the tongue or nasal membrane due to poor permeability. Furthermore, most medicine without coating matrix loses their activity rapidly. In order to prolong the release of therapeutic agent to 24–48 hours, the development of a suitable polymeric matrix is necessary.
Many patents in polymer matrix advocate the use of various biopolymers for the releasing control, but most of these polymers are not suitable to be used in velvet antler extract. The reasons are:    (1) There are many polymeric materials in velvet antler extract which needs a special elastic polymer with strong adsorption property to form an encapsulated complex in order to prolong the residence time of them, so as to enhance the absorption of antler extract and other gradients in the composition.    (2) The polymer complex used in an antler extract should be insoluble in water and with right size to accommodate the antler extract and other ingredients in the composition.    (3) The polymer must be pharmaceutically acceptable and free of toxicity. In addition, the final product is sterilized under high temperature and high pressure, so these ingredients must be chemically stable.
In order to enhance the permeability of the polymeric matrix and the active polymer complex in antler extract, it needs a special solvent with dual hydrophilic and hydrophobic function. Furthermore, for avoiding the degradation of the active factor in antler extract, the proteinase activity should be inhibited. Therefore, an enzymatic inhibitor should be added to the composition.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,702,923 discloses a yogurt composition with 7–15% velvet antler powder enriched. The yogurt composition is considered inferior in medicinal value because the low content of antler powder. Because there are many polymers in velvet antler extract, the antler extract becomes water-insoluble when the amount of antler extract is high. So the antler composition comprising high amount of antler extract is usually hard to be packed as solution or spray, and it confines the application of aqueous antler composition. Therefore, products comprising high amount of velvet antler has not been developed in the market.
In traditional method, the active compound of velvet antler was obtained by extracting with alcohol or water, and then lyophilizing the active compound and grounding into powder. But this method cannot afford high quality and quantity active compound and costs a lot. U.S. Pat. No. 6,099,867 teaches a new processing method to heat the velvet antler at 100 to 120° C. for 2 hour, then go through several steps of separation, homogenization, filtering, mixing, and lyophilization. This method includes severe heating for extended time, and it ineluctably triggers chemical reactions which could significantly reduce the medicinal value of velvet antlers.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a novel antler composition and producing method to mitigate and/or obviate the aforementioned problems.